Fallen Time
by MizzKizzy
Summary: Nico di angelo moved to manhatten "The war is over,and Kronos is gone. So whats left for the rest of us?The world is about to fall because the time line has been altered.So can we change our own destinys too?We are the ones who hold that power." 3POV
1. leaving

_Chapter 1: Leaving…_

_**Narrator: (me!) **_

_Years after the war against the Titans did Nico Di Angelo finally get over Bianca's, his sister's, death. This takes place when Nico is 15._

_"Bye!" I shouted. The other campers shouted 'bye Nico, or 'Whoo! He's gone'. The last ones were the Ares cabin demigods._

_I was tired of being cramped up at camp half blood, so I decided to leave, but Chiron made me go to school like other kids my age. Well, technically I'm 70 years older than every body because of being trapped in the Lotus casino for 70 years. See, that casino was enchanted, to keep kids in playing games, while the rest of the world grew old, and they stayed immortal- kind of-. That's what happened to me. But 5 or so years ago a man in a suit came and rescued us. Me and Bianca were sent to a military school and soon almost gotten killed by a manticore (a cat man, or lion, I don't know it's kind of hard to remember.), when Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood, and Thalia Grace rescued us. We were sent to Camp Half-Blood, a camp for demigods to be protected and train to protect themselves in the real world._

_Now I was heading to a school in Manhattan. Every day when I wake up I practice in the arena__ with a few of the skeleton warriors I summoned up to keep me on my toes but now I was prohibited to even summon any dead thing from the underworld. That's easy to explain, I'm a child of Hades, the god of the underworld. I felt really weird not practicing this morning._

_I got in the __car__ and Argus, our camp guard who has, like, a thousand eyes! , drove me away._

_Hades has a 'friend' that he let me stay with, his name is Lucas. He owns a foster home and I'm the first boy in it. On arriving I saw several more __cars__ behind mine. I guess that Lucas wanted to start this business fast. I could see that one was a girl about my age and 4 boys behind her car._

_I got out of the car and rang the door bell, no one answered, and it was starting to sprinkle. The other kids got out and stood behind me. I tried to knock on the door but something shocked me, I had smashed a black widow. The weird thing is when things die I can see their spirit leave their body. The spiders' spirit crawled up my arm and turned to smoke._

_The girl behind me watched stunned. I could tell she wasn't a demigod, but now I knew she could see through the mist, but she was more special than other mist see-through mortals because she could see the spider's spirit._

_Her mouth hung open, "Uh…your hand is swelling!" She shrieked, and the other kids jumped at her sudden outburst. I looked to my hand; it was swelling up with the poison of the dead black widow. Particularly, I wouldn't worry about that because I was immune to poison, or non-physical death sentencing stuff. I concentrated and my swelling went down, and the poison from the spider sting just dripped off and out of my hand, I wiped it on my pants._

_The other boys weren't looking but the girl was, she just looked quizzical for a second then threw up over the balcony. She recovered her self and we all waited another half hour ringing the door bell._

_I got agitated and took out my black stygian iron sword out and busted open the door. "Whoa! Cool, where did you get that!" The other 4 boys got all excited. Crud monkeys! The girl just looked as stunned at me as ever. I panicked and ran through the busted door._

_"Hey! Nico, you finally made it in!" I'm guessing it was Lucas. The other kids walked in. When I and the girl turned towards the voice we both screamed. Lucas was a skeleton, bits of him still there. The girl fainted in my arms. I had screamed because of him, being in skeleton form in front of these other mortal children, what was he thinking? The other boys didn't see anything strange, just a man._

_How was I going to help this girl? "Lucas, she can 'see'! Cut it out!" I scolded our Foster keeper. Technically I wasn't an orphan, because I did live with my dad, Hades sometimes. He said 'oh!' and fixed himself right as the girl in my arms woke up. She scuttled forward, a little embarrassed by what she had just done; I don't think she thought the Lucas problem was real._

_"Hello children! My name is Lucas, your foster parent or provider! Let me introduce you to each other and the three other girls staying here. April, Maylynn, Tami, Jessica, get down here, the new orphans are here!" Lucas hollered, I could tell the other kids were a little offended. I glared at him._

_Four girls came running down the stairs. Lucas introduced them, "This is Tami,-" Tami had short brown hair and hazel eyes, she was a total girly girl, "And Maylynn,-" May had blonde hair that went to her hips, her eyes were blue, she had a bit of acne on her face, she was shy and timid, but I instantly liked her, "Jessica,-" Jessica was a red head, had brown eyes and wore too much pink,_ "And last, but not least April." April had black hair and sea green eyes, she looked just like Percy! I gasped when I saw her; she looked at me stunned also.

"What's he (she) doing here, Lucas!" we both said. Lucas just laughed and went on.

"April, Jessica, Maylynn, Tami, this is Nico Di Angelo,-" Tami looked interested, I cringed, May just nodded, but I could tell all of them thought I was Goth, but April could tell I was a son of Hades. I nodded, "This is Donagin,-"He was a boy behind me, his eyes were like May's and He was the type of sports guy, Tami and Jessica instantly took him away, "And Mike,-" another boy behind me, he ran after his twin, Donagin, "Joseph,-" He was a bit younger than me but looked a little like May. She squealed, I think they were separated siblings, they both hugged and started crying, they left us 4 left alone. "And this last boy is Herculus," It was pronounced Her-c-you-l-us. Me and April looked at each other and started laughing. The boy looked a bit like Thalia; I stopped April from continuing to laugh.

"April, I think he's a son of Zeus…"I whispered to her. The girl who had fainted walked in.

"Oh! And this is Lexi!" Lucas finished the introductions. "Everybody, if you want to know where your room is, your name is taped to the door." He shouted.

Me and April grabbed Herculus and Lexi and headed straight for my room. Lexi was my age and had jet black hair, just like mine. Her eyes were a beautiful purple, which is rare for humans to have. Her face was shaped like a heart, hair caressing it into a bob. She was like me, a bit on the dark side, not Goth but taking the loner position. We both wore complete black; her hair was nicely combed down, unlike my messy and longish, but short dew.

I used to have short brown hair, but it changed when I first went to the underworld.

When we found my room, we shut the door. Herculus just looked confused, Lexi scared. "How should we tell them?" I asked April.

"I don't know, but why did you bring the mortal in here!"

"Because she can see through the mist, she also saw the soul of a spider that I killed!" I argued.

"Well, still you could have kept her out of this!" April scolded.

"Have you seen what Lucas really is? Lexi saw that! And… oh gods, you Poseidon demigods are so annoying!" I said exasperatedly.

"Poseidon, I thought I was unclaimed?"

"Well if you would have paid more attention to Percy, you would have known!" We were practically yelling now.

"Hey! Why are you talking about Greek myths? And what mist can I see through? You're scaring me!" Lexi screeched in our ears.

"Lexi, we need to tell you something…" So I and April told her everything about the Gods, and the monsters, and what she could do.

"Then why am I here?" Lexi asked.

"Ya, I was wondering the same thing." April said, I could tell she didn't like Lexi.

"Because, well… because I saw in an iris message, that, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, our oracle, is about to die and Lexi is the next oracle or Delphi of Apollo." I explained gruesomely. It killed me to know that Rachel was going to die, but, what else could happen.

"What? But she's my only friend at camp! How is this supposed to happen, and when?" April sobbed into my shoulder.

"Who's Rachel Elizabeth Dare?" Asked Herculus. I had forgotten he was there, was he listening this whole time? Boy, he was quiet!

But this only made April weep harder. "Shh, it's ok, we'll find a way." I said.

"Do you know who my Godly parent is?" Herculus asked again.

"Well, you kind of look like Thalia." I said so he'd catch on.

"But I've never been to Camp Half-Blood, I've never even heard of this stuff till a minute ago, but strangely I believe you." Herculus said reasonably.

"Oh ya, sorry, I think you're a son of Zeus."

"Wow, what can I do like April can control water? What can you do?" He asked me.

"From seeing what Thalia can do, I'm guessing you can summon up a pretty intense storm. Make it rain or other things. A natural born leader. And you have the power to control lightning." I said. Herculus's eyes were wide with interest. "And I can summon the dead, ghosts, or an army of skeletons, also shadow travel, since I'm the son of Hades."

Herculus felt a tingle in his gut and shocked Lexi. "Hey! Ouch, that hurt!" Lexi exclaimed and scooted away. That made April giggle. Why did she not like Lexi? Lexi looked to me for support since I hadn't laughed.

"Um…Herculus, you shouldn't do that to mortals."

He ignored me and shocked her again, this time her hair stuck up. April went hysterical and fell off me and the bed side. "Ugh! Demigods! I don't like how you keep calling me 'mortal', you're one too!" With that Lexi stormed out of the room, I tried to run after her but April held me back.

"Don't, she'll get over it." April said.

I couldn't just leave Lexi like that, not with all that just happened a few minutes ago. "No." and with that I went out after Lexi. She wouldn't let go, so I quickly shadow traveled with April clinging to my arm and we ended up in the bathroom. I walked out the door and locked her in.

April realized what just happened and started screaming and banging on the door. I turned my head and saw Lexi down the hall laughing her head off. **(A/N: since I'm one too, Teenagers always have the most fun goofing each other off, like what happened with Herculus shocking Lexi, April laughed. And Nico shadow traveled with April locked her in the bathroom, that made Lexi bust up!) **I couldn't help but laugh a little too. Then I could hear April busting the pipes with her power of Poseidon and used the water to rip the door off its hinges. Lexi and I went quiet.

"You JERK!" April screeched at me. She charged at me taking out her sword I had seen her get from camp a few years ago. I pushed Lexi out of **the** way and ran for my room just down the hallway.

Herculus knew what was going on and tried to be median but April just dragged him into the fight.

Herculus and I ran out side, avoiding water geyser blows from behind us. I don't know how April discovered her power so quickly but she was doing pretty good, better than Percy I might add.

I accidentally tripped Herculus on the way out the front door, he immediately took it offensively. Now there was going to be a battle between the three most powerful demigods alive. The streets of Manhattan went nuts. With all the water being pulled in by April, the storms and massive lightning by Herculus, and the scariest that made mortals run for their lives, the skeletons crawling out of a new fisher in the street, made by me… Total masdistruction and chaos!


	2. REpairing Manhattan

**Authors note: This is an answer section: A reviewer wondered if the timing was right; yes it is; the two new demigods were born a few years after Percy. I was thinking for my story that, well, you know how the gods say they're always "busy" I think that Zeus and Poseidon thought it was ok to sire a kid again after their secret fortune teller (I made her up, she comes in later in the story) told them that it was ok to break their pact because she saw that an already born child would be the 'doom' of them. Zeus and Poseidon fell in more love than they ever had with a mortal than they ever have before, because long after Herculus and April met Nico, the 2 gods still secretly met with their moms. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or the characters in it, but I do own mine and their personalities, and Nico's new ****personality**** in this.**

Chapter 2: Repairing Manhattan…

April thought twice about bringing the water out from the foster home and commanded it to go back, then she used the sewer water right below her, oh great. Herculus amazed me, he was doing so much more than Thalia ever did, and he learned quicker, too. He had lightning striking at my feet every ten feet my skeleton warriors moved, oh ya, which reminds me.

I had gotten fed up with them; they were acting so immature, taking advantage of themselves power. So I had summoned for about a whole legion of skeleton warriors to come forth from the underworld, I was going to have to talk to my father, Hades, about this later. At first it shocked April and Herculus, because they've never seen what I can do, they thought I was a worthless, gothic loner demigod. But they quickly recovered, while this scared the crud turkeys out of every mortal in Manhattan. They ran around screaming, some accidentally fell in the new crevice that ran all the way to down town.

At first when the skeleton warriors came out they were confused, so they almost ended up slicing and dicing the mortal citizen around them. I yelled, "Not them! Just protect me from the other demigods, then we'll see what happens if it gets too brutal." Well, that's what happened, April found out she could encase the warriors in a floating ball of water, just like the orsaphontis, except they just went nuts with disorientation and went every direction they could, trying to find a way out. Herculus tried his best and shattered them to pieces, bones flying every where, but they just got themselves re-pieced in a matter of seconds and continued to defend. Herculus also brought up a major storm, it ruined some woman's perm and she just stood there balling, ignoring everything else.

So I told the skeleton warriors to attack, but I really wasn't going to have the skeleton warriors hurt Herculus and April, just have them pull out at the last second. But it was enough to do this, Herculus and April got scared looks on their faces and ran, releasing everything, so it went back to a sunny day. They were already having a hard time trying to get rid of them protecting me; I just sat there and watched, most of the time. Other times I would shadow travel up behind either of them and try and tackle them, tell them to knock it off. April would thrash too much. And Herculus was a few inches taller than me. But I had way more muscle than him.

Between attacks, when I got to April she would try and drown me in a bunch of water around us, but she could breath in it, being the daughter of Poseidon and all. But somehow I figured out how to make a shadow field around me and breathe, but still see, and April was oblivious to my little trick, so I pretended to thrash for air a little for her satisfaction. Herculus on the other hand was a lot easier, since he didn't want to electrocute himself with his own power. It was funny to watch the look on his face when I shadow traveled up to April with him accidentally clinging to me still.

But once they ran back inside you could here a lot of yelling for Lucas. I immediately told the skeleton warriors to go back into the underworld, because I know how they felt, since Lucas was part skeleton, he would start up a whole new, boring "family reunion". "Go, go! Lucas is coming!" I hollered frantically at them. And with that I saw a flash of old Roman, Greek, and some US military skeleton warriors dash back into the crevice. It sealed up immediately.

So I ran inside, and put the invisible shadow field around me, incase April or Herculus attacked me again. The house was quiet; I turned the corner and _whoom, _Lexi had me in a rib jarring bear hug. "Nico, I thought you were dead!" She squealed, tears coming to her eyes, then she let go and sat down on the floor.

"What the," I said. "Wait, what? Weren't you watching?"

"No, I was hiding in my room from April, I didn't know where you went, Lucas told us to hide, that you and April _including Herculus_ have gotten into a huge fight. I thought, since you told us all this bug stuff they could do, that you were dead." Lexi said.

"No way, I scared their pants of with my skeleton warriors." I laughed.

"Skeleton warriors, what are they?" She asked.

"Come on, I'll show you." I said trying hard to picture what she'd do when she saw them.

I led her outside and onto the street, it was still abandoned from the fight, which lasted about a half hour. Her jaw dropped when she saw the new scar in the road that crossed into the park, the led down the city, I now noticed that it had knocked down some small buildings. Then I opened another small one about 12ft. And about 17 more skeleton warriors jumped out, ready to attack. Lexi got scared and ran behind me, she was shaking with convulsions like an earthquake, but not screaming. "Can you control them?" She asked, and her teeth chattering as she spoke.

"Yah, don't be scared, you guys can go back now." I said and they were gone, the hole closing up, too. "Also watch this." I said just as the military rolled onto the street spotting us.

"Hold right there!" A man shouted over a loud speaker, I don't think they know what they were dealing with. "We need to get you to safety; there is very heavy gang activity over here." He continued. Oh ya, mortals never really saw the real thing.

With that I grabbed Lexi into a piggy back (on me, of course) and ran into the shadows of the trees in the park across the street. The wind seemed to shift, everything went dark, and we started to shadow travel. But just as we left, I saw Jessica run out the door and yell, "They did it!" pointing towards me and Lexi.

When I stopped, Lexi fell off my back and was completely out of it, having a laughing fit; you could tell she was dizzy, inside and out. She rolled over and hurled. From years of doing shadow traveling, it didn't do anything to me except me feel a smidge dizzy when I stop, then I'm ready to fight.

We were now at the gates to the Isles of Belst. Behind us was a line of souls waiting to sign up for three time reincarnation. I saw a young man stick his head out the side with a huge smile on his face. He had longish blond hair and sky blue eyes, some white streaked his hair from holding up the sky on Mt. Orthos. Luke…

"Nico, look, I'm trying to keep my promise." He said. Then he looked at Lexi, a little stunned. "Who's she? And why have you brought a mortal to the underworld?" Luke asked.

"Long story, but how did you get here so quickly?" I asked.

"Oh, Hades got a new organization system for the dead, and he accepted my plea for another chance." said Luke cheerily. I never got how some could be happy after death. Maybe now they were because Hades was no longer hateful to most things, because now he was welcomed by the other Gods after the war with the Titan's and Hades coming in and saving their children and seats of power above The Empire State building.

"Wow, um, so what do you know about being given three lives?" I asked, so curious to know.

"Well, we never look exactly the same, but at the same time we do, our eyes and voice stay the same. So do most of our selves, but only a little is put in of the next people who we are given a life into. Our memory loses almost nothing, but we are sworn to not act like we've already been alive. But when we die again, our spirits go back to the normal one, like I am now. Besides that, I don't know what else; they tell us the rest when we are ready to go." He then turned his head, now deep in thought; I bet he was thinking of Thalia.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked him.

Somehow he blushed. "WOW! I didn't know ghost could blush!" exclaimed Lexi. I jumped; I had forgotten she was there. I looked to Luke he didn't seem the least bit offended.

"I was thinking about what I'd do. Should I go find Thalia, or Annabeth? Should I apologize to Percy or everybody of whom I hurt? What should I do with a new life if I get one? I mean, Thalia is a huntress, but now that the war is over and she's no longer a risk, does she hate boys now? I wonder if Annabeth is happy. What do you think Nico?" Luke asked me.

Your probably wondering why I'm talking to him. That in the past I never really knew him. Well, that's true and all. But after Luke died, I kept feeling disturbances, like when a 'ghost' wants to communicate with me from the underworld. I then dug up a hole, and made offerings, letting the 'ghost' who was bugging me come forth and drink and eat my offerings. It turned out to be Luke. Immediately I was revolted, because of what I heard about him, but he got through to me and explained _everything. _I mean, his feelings towards Thalia, or how he felt about being a big brother to Annabeth, then letting them down. Or how he was sorry that all he did for the world. He just thought he was doing the right thing, trying to rid the world of evil. He meant, since he was little, he developed his own feelings towards Hermes. How Hermes never visited or seemed to care. Then the essence of Kronos made the feelings worse, made Luke assume more things. Kronos tricked Luke into doing all those ill mannered things towards the Gods and Goddesses. Internally, while Kronos was having control over Luke's body, Luke found out the true truth and fought his hardest to break loose, to take control again and get rid of Kronos. He would have gotten out sooner if he had an inspiration from Thalia, since he loved her, but when Annabeth stood up to Kronos and said _'you promised!',_ that brought new hope and strength. He then killed himself to be rid of Kronos and suspend him for a while. After death, all the Gods took mercy on Luke and gave him a '_golden ticket_' to the Isles of Belst.

I understood Luke all the way through, and talked to him a lot, not telling anyone else. Because almost every body at camp half blood was waiting for him to get reincarnated, just like he is now in line for. "Nico, are you going to answer me? I'm next…" Luke said a little impatiently.

"Oh, um, you should do all of that, it would possibly satisfy all of them. I'm just happy the Gods aren't completely mad at you." I said as they called him in for a survey to see if he will pass for being given a second life.

"Whoa, what's this?" Lexi exclaimed, again. She was now distracted by a sleeping Cerberus. They had moved the position of the three headed giant dog, and replaced his position with a _Drakon (not dragon). _Lexi started to pet him, Cerberus's eyes started to open his weary eyes. Drool left his mouth that was stuck in the lower bottom part of his lips. Cerberus curled his lips over his teeth and let out a low growl from his lips.

"Lexi don't, that's Cerberus, and I wouldn't do that!" I shouted just as Cerberus took a snap at Lexi's throat. I dove for her and knocked out of the way, Cerberus backed off when he saw it was me, he was sort of my pet. When I pushed her she hit the gates leading to the Isles of Belst. Inside those gates was beautiful, there was different sections of time period buildings, Ancient Greece, Old Rome, pretty much all the places the gods were. The pillars were magnificently shaped with designs of their history, (I was looking at the Ancient Greece section), roaming around there was the most demigod 'ghosts' I've ever seen together. I recognized one, he looked a lot like Herculus, but I just didn't know his name.

Lexi wasn't moving, but she was breathing. I ran over there and realized I had knocked her out. "Cerberus, can you help me take her over to my father's palace?" I asked the three headed dog. He whimpered a yes with his head, so I loaded Lexi's limp body onto his back and we sailed out of there, running over surprised looking spirits.

We came up onto the garden side walk; I saw dead flowers and rotting chains draped along the crumbling gray brick walls. There was the smell of rotting corpses when you sniffed anything, even the air. Shadows covered almost everything except the patches of garden and side walks. I could see shimmering shapes coming in and out of visibility in them.

The doors that were lined with bones opened at announce of my arrival. I jumped of Cerberus and grabbed Lexi, and carried her all the way to the thrown room. Hades stood up, looking happy, the first time I've ever seen it since the other Gods praised him for saving them. "Nico, my son," He said proudly, then he saw the unconscious girl in my arms, "Who is this? And why have you brought a living soul and mortal into my domain?" Hades roared.

"She is to be the next oracle of Delphi soon. But I came here in desperation to escape from a fight I had gotten into…" I said trying to calm him a bit.

"Tell me." Hades said impatiently.

"Well, the guy Lucas you have me staying with, he's housing at least two more demigods than me, and one is April Mc'tearman from camp half blood-"

"She's unclaimed; it's unsafe for her to be out side of the boarders." He objected.

"Ya, she's a daughter of Poseidon, and the other demigod is a new one, but he's the son of Zeus." I finished.

Hades didn't say anything, his mouth hung open.

"But we got into a fight and almost destroyed Manhattan, but I think the military came, I had to get out of there somehow, so I came here. And Lexi started petting Cerberus, I pushed her out of the way when he attacked and she knocked out on the gates to the Isles of Belst."

Hades wasn't doing anything for a minute, just deep in thought. "Come, we'll fix this girl up, but in the mean time, stay in the 'waiting room'." He told me finally, and what he meant by 'waiting room' is the cell like stone room he held me in during the battle against the Titans. I had managed to escape long enough to help Percy take a dip in the river Styx.

A few skeleton guards led me away. Once I was in the dark square room I right away was looking for the hole I had crawled through last time. "It's not there; Hades had us seal it up since last time." Chattered a skeleton, it always sounded do weird when they talk! And with that the door closed and I was incomplete darkness.

It felt like hours were going by, what were they doing to Lexi? Were they actually helping her? Or doing something WAY worse? I could feel myself start to cry, what was the reason for keeping me in here now? Was it that I had caused so much havoc in Manhattan? Or that I had brought Lexi down here? Was I actually being _'grounded'_? Then I saw a little flash above my head, and then it happened again.

"Nico, are you there?" Luke's voice asked me from a little mist over me.

"Uh, yes I'm in my prison again." I said miserably.

"Oh, well, I got accepted to have another life, and we could chose anything or one to contact before we leave, I chose you. I just wanted to show you what I'd look like so you could come find me and possibly trigger my memory so I can fulfill what the reason I'm doing this for." Luke continued.

"I thought you always got your memory back?" I asked.

"Not at first, we have to have a, uh, what's the word for it? Oh ya, we gave to have some sort of connection with our past lives in order to get our memory back."

"Ok, so do you want somebody to come with me to find you? How will I know it's you?" I asked again.

"Yes, bring someone with you, maybe Annabeth; and here is what to look for:" Luke said and then an image of a person appeared in front of me.

I was a fifteen year old boy, with blonde hair and Luke's sky blue eyes; everything about him was about the same as he was before. But now this person looked sleeker, and athletic, I could see the resemblance from Hermes that was still there. Then the picture changed and had a tablet of information. Next to it was a picture of Hermes and a woman. It said that Luke would be born from a different woman, but would remain a son of Hermes. He looked like both of them a little, but mostly like his old self, that I was happy about.

"So, now you know what I will look like, but it also says that I will reside in Danbury, Connecticut. I have chosen that once you turn 14 I will already be 15, they have decided to place me back in time to where I will be. But my new reincarnation will be protected from being recruited by Kronos's army." Luke explained some more.

"Wait, the gods don't have the power to send you back in time. The only one ever with that power was Kronos, and he's practically dead, or we don't know where his essence went again." I objected.

"Ya, Kronos is gone, for now. But some how Kronos had another child with a human, no one knows how but it was before he took over my old body. This child sided with the Gods and not Kronos during the war. And she can also control time, but she ran away a few months ago and we know she lost her memory. So before we can continue with my reincarnation, she needs to be found. Since she's the first half human child of Kronos, her scent is masked, it gives out lies, so she could be any one, and it also masks her as a mortal. We want you to find her." With that Luke vanished.

The door one the other side of this desolate cell opened. "Hades wishes to speak with you." The skeleton guard chattered. Then he let me back to the throne room.

"Nico, I trust you have spoken to Luke?" Hades asked me as I entered the room. Perspherone sat behind him, glaring at me, she was still mad at Hades for having me with my mom, Maria. But that was 70 stinking years ago!

"Yes, he told me of the child." I said.

"Good, now, Lexi has recovered, but she keeps doing some weird things I think you should keep and eye on her." He said and then Lexi came out, limping.

"Why is she limping?" I said as I went over to her support her weight.

"Well, when our doctors turned their skulls for just a second and then back she was all the way down the main hall. She got scared at one my portraits," He glared at her, she flinched into my shoulders, "And backed into one of the warriors swords, it cut her leg pretty deep. Now you must be going now." Hades waved his hand, a skeleton grabbed my arm and was about to shove us into the shadows.

"Wait, how did she get all the way down that hall, it's at least a mile long? And what type of weird things have she been doing?" I asked pleadingly, but we went into the shadows and I could tell we were shadow traveling.

The wind traveled around us, everything was black. But I could se Lexi clinging onto me for dear life, like it was broad daylight. "Lexi, what do they mean you've been doing weird things, and how did you get all the way down that hall so quickly?" I asked her, curious.

"I-I don't know how that happened, and what do they mean I've been doing weird things?" Lexi said the last part to her self.

It seemed like hours before we were back in my room. I stepped out of the shadows and led Lexi back to her room. She gladly slumped down onto her bed and fell asleep immediately. So I left quietly. I slowly crept down the stairs and into the living room. Mike was sitting on the couch and watching TV. I came over and sat next to him, since he was sitting in the middle cushion.

"Hey, where have you been?" He asked me.

"Um, I went to a store to look for a, uh, trampoline." I made that up as an excuse.

"The where was Lexi?" He pressed getting a little interested.

"She went with me to help chose one."

"Then where is it?"

"Um, it will be delivered in a few days." I quickly recovered.

"Ok." And then we were quiet.

"So, where is your twin?" I asked him.

"Oh, he's with Tami and Jessica, they're always all over _him_, why not me too? I mean we are identical." He was looking to me for an answer.

"Why are you looking at me?" I asked.

"Puh." Mike scoffed and left the room.

"Jeez." I muttered to my self. I hadn't noticed little Joseph was curled up on the other side of the couch. I picked him up and carried him up stairs. I took him to the fifth door down the hall, it was May's room.

I knocked on the door and she opened it up just a smidge. "Hello?" She asked in a sweet voice.

"Um, here's your little brother, he fell asleep on the couch."

"Oh, ya, thank you." She took him from my arms, smiled the quietly shut the door.

I then went to the very end of the hall and into my room. Opening the door it was dark in there. When I stepped in, some one grabbed me ands lamed the door locked behind me.

"Nico, Nico, wake up." April's voice said.

"What?" I slowly opened my eyes.

I was on my bed, tied up; Herculus and April were in front of me, not tied up. "We need to talk; the military thinks a gang messed up the upper half of Manhattan. As you well know it was you." April said accusingly.

"Not just me, it was you guys too. April you brought a lot of sewage to the streets, and Herculus, you burnt some tree's and permanently scorched the side walks." I pointed out, because they also destroyed some of the city. I didn't mention the worst of what they did.

"At least we didn't make a big mark or hole that stretches through all of Manhattan, and bring down skyscrapers." Herculus said.

"No, actually you brought down the skyscrapers, and April flooded the whole suburbs of this place. So don't get after me." I shot back.

"Oh…" They both said.

"Well the Gods have punished to repair this neighborhood for at least two weeks." April admitted.

"Well, we better get to breakfast, can you untie me now?" Herculus did so and I left the room without a word to either of them.

Downstairs everybody else was already at the table eating. I sat down next to Lexi at the counter, away from everybody else. "Hey." We both exchanged hellos.

"Hello Nico, you've been asleep along time." Lucas greeted me. I responded with a grunt.

Everybody at the table was alive with happy chatter. May was now going out with Mike. Donagin was still chatting with Tami and Jessica. Joseph was playing cards with Herculus, and April was in the shower.

"Ok, I'm going to get desert for breakfast!" Lucas our foster caretaker announced. Then he left the room for the freezer.

"So, how are you feeling?" I asked Lexi.

"Um, I'm ok, but my leg is still sore from the incidence at your father's palace." Lexi said while rubbing the back of her leg. She then picked up her glass to take a drink when Lucas came in carrying a tray of cookies.

"That's where you went!" April wailed as she accidentally fell down the last two steps of the stairs. It startled everybody, April fell onto Lucas, he dropped the scorching cookies onto Donagin, and Donagin fell forward, his football launching out of his hands. The football went sailing and knocked Lexi's glass out of her hands. It shattered on the granite counter next to her.

"Oh man, my root beer." Lexi complained.

"Root beer for breakfast?" I laughed.

She looked disappointedly at the mess, and then put her finger on to a piece of broken glass, whirling it around sadly.

Immediately piece of glass and ounce of that drink went back together, taking all of 7 seconds. It was now in Lexi's hand, her staring at it in disbelief. "How did I do that?" She muttered.

"You're the missing daughter of Kronos…" I gasped. This certainly explained a lot of mysteries and lies.

**OK! I hope you liked it.**

**Funny, Lexi's Kronos's half human daughter. **

_**Go to my profile, read all three of my stories and then go back to my profile and vote on my poll, I want to know which story to continue!**_

_**BYE!**_

**R&R**


	3. Time stands still way too much

_**I looked up where the entrance to tartarus would be located on , (A/n: it's actually spelled 'tartarus' and Kronos, is actually spelled 'Cronos' and Kampe is actually spelled 'Campe' (Campe is the snake lady with the poison sword in BOTL) and so are a lot of other Greek myth names, but I guess Rick didn't catch that, But tartarus is located next to the plains of judgment. And the real map of the underworld doesn't have the fields of punishment, so I'm confused.)**_

_**Chapter 3: Time stands still, way too much. **_

"I'm what?" Lexi scoffed.

"April, Herculus, come on." I motioned for them to follow me and grabbed Lexi. The other two were looking at Lexi in a whole new way. Like they thought she was evil, now that they knew who her father was, they thought she would take after him, Kronos.

"Nico, where are we going?" Lexi and April asked at the same time. They turned their heads towards each other and glared. _I have no idea why they do that_.

"Hold on to me." I said, and they all hung on to my arms. We stepped into the shadows of the main hallway and it all went black. The wind rushed past us, the feeling of falling took over, and we were shadow traveling. Within a few seconds we hit the solid rock of the river banks of the river Styx in the underworld. This was the first time Herculus had shadow traveled and he fell over hurling and feeling disoriented, just like Lexi did, man Percy was a lot stronger.

"Why are we here Nico?" April asked me.

"We're here to inform my father that we have found Kronos's child." I said flatly.

"What will they do with me?" Lexi asked.

"I have no idea, but if they attack, we'll protect you." I said pointedly at April.

"What? I don't need her." April pushed back in protest.

"Because Lexi is the only way that Luke can be reincarnated, for his body to be the way he wants, he need to be put back in time, or else he won't come back, there's your answer. Don't you want Luke back? You know how you felt about him at camp." I scolded her, she was so irritating at times, she just won't think because she only sees her rage at others. Personally I felt a little scared for Lexi, what would Hades do to her?

April blushed like fire when I mad that last remark. "Well, if you put it that way, let's get going." April finally said after a minute. But as we stared to walk, I saw April shoot another death glare at Lexi. _JEEZ!_

We walked over to the gates leading into the ghost realm, there were three passages we could take, I usually take the path that leads to Elysium, but today I took a path that led to the fields of punishment, bad choice. The Drakon stopped us at the entrance and tried to eat Herculus, but he fought back, it finally took me to stop them, by shadow traveling with the beast all the way to the palace. A bunch of guards came over and put the snake like demon under. I quickly returned to my friends. They were staring at some free dwelling spirits.

"Keep it moving?" I had to get them in line or Hades would have my head for messing up the whole system that finally got things settled down here, but my father wouldn't actually kill me, just ground me for eternity, literally. Then some more skeletons came in and took over for us.

We wandered down the lonely path, hearing the moaning of the souls who were on 'good behavior'; they had just gotten out of hundreds of years of torture. They were in a wide, newly built, stone room. Lexi, April, Herculus, and I wondered in, this was the only way we could pass through the fields of punishment. This was the longest path to Hades palace, but I wanted some time to think.

"Nico, do you think this is the right path?" Lexi asked, I could tell she was uneasy, we had already exited the small room and were actually going through the halls, the doors and chambers open, showing the tortured souls, so much horror. Others were burned alive or dead and others besides them were attacked over and over again by furriers, yes there was more besides the three sisters. The rest I cannot tell you because of this information is not to be disputed, by new law, ordered by the head of the judgment pavilion.

Lexi screamed she had seen something that I wouldn't even look at. I turned around and saw that she was running towards us, she had fallen behind. There were tears running down her face. When she finally reached us she collapsed to the ground sobbing like Tartarus. "No, no, no, she couldn't, she never did anything wrong!" Lexi sobbed, while sobbing.

"Lexi! Who didn't do anything? What's wrong? What did you see?" I came over asking and squatted next to her.

"That was my mother in there! I know it wasn't scary, they weren't torturing her, but she's still alive, they've chained her up!" Lexi sobbed even more. "She went missing a few years ago, and I was sent to live with my great grand mother, then Lucas, but I had no idea she was here! I've been missing her for years." She balled and whined.

"She's here, so why are you crying so hard?" Scoffed April.

"I don't know, it's just a relief, but it upsets me that…THAT NICO'S DAD DID THIS!" Lexi got up angrily and yelled at me.

"Hey, I had no idea." I protested.

"Yes, you must have, your such a daddy's boy. All these years, every second of everyday, for months even, I've wanted my mother back, and your father has her chained up in the fields of punishment! I remember every thought, almost over those three long years, and most of them have been of her, I haven't forgotten anything. So you don't get to say a thing and I-" She was yelling now, but I noticed something. Lexi said she hasn't forgotten anything in three years that I was such a daddy's boy, she didn't even know me, and I wasn't even Goth.

"Wait, you remember everything, for three years back. And you're the daughter of Kronos. The Gods sent me to find that child just a day ago, and said that that child was on their side, and that child ran away, and GOT _'AMNESIA'. _You're that child, and you've never forgotten a thing! We almost lost that war without you, and souls are suffering!"

The walls around us started to rock wildly. Boulders were falling around us and Lexi ran for her mom. Herculus caught her and April grabbed me and we all ran towards the walls of Eberos, since we were closest to them. I couldn't understand this; Hades wouldn't even allow earthquakes to even touch the underworld.

I heard a woman screech, I knew that from anywhere. The last time she was 'alive' and had not had her head cut off was (This was after Percy and Annabeth had encountered her) two years ago, she got mad at me for, somehow, reviving everything and one she had turned into stone, I guess when you're a son of Hades you can do the opposite of Medusa. She tried to kill, or 'petrify' every one at my last foster home for that.

"What was that?" Shrieked April, she was in the foster home with me the last time, she hates Medusa.

"It's ok, she doesn't even know we're here-" I tried to say all but Miss Snake head yelled and ran down the hall towards me and April, or probably all of us.

"You, you did this to me!" She screeched. Her head was facing her but; I guess she didn't come back all that complete. Medusa dived for my neck; I easily dodged it, because we were in my element now. The thing is, in the underworld, Medusa has no effect on anyone, so it's ok to look at her face. Even if she is looking at her own butt!

So I guess the walls rumble when another monster reawakes. "You pesky half-blood's, don't you know that any and every monster down here can smell you!" She dived again, but I unsheathed my stygian iron sword and smacked her head away. We heard a loud snap and Medusa's head was back in place, forward I mean.

"Ahhh, now it will be easier to kill you!" She stood there and just stared into my eyes, and then when that didn't work she tried Lexi, then April, then even Herculus. "WHAT? Why aren't you turning to stone?" Snake lady yelled, but I sliced her head off in an instant.

It landed next to Lexi's feet while the rest of us were suddenly covered in a puff of golden smoke. Lexi screamed and started to scream and run but I jumped in front of her, knocking her down. "Stop, grab her, I'm taking her to Hades, NOW!" I ordered the other two; I was so fed up with this. April got her struggling arms, Herculus her flailing legs, and I got under her and held up her wiggling torso. We all ran towards to judgment pavilion to fetch a quick ride to Hades palace.

Once there a skeleton warrior came and observed us, then he fetched Cerberus, and we rode my three headed 'pet dog' to my father's palace. It was quiet the whole time there, me holding Lexi's mouth and arms, Herculus her legs, until April spoke up to me. "Nico, what does Hades want with _her_ anyways?" April asked softly, or whispered.

"I don't quite know, the other Gods want her punished for running away in our time of need during the war, but then again, my father did get into a fight with them again, so he might spare her." I said.

"That doesn't answer my question: what does Hades want with her?" April corrected me.

"Oh, umm, Father just told me to go find the missing half blood of Kronos, and to bring her to him first, and don't say anything to anybody else, dad told me. So I really have no idea." I answered her.

"Okay, just wondering." She looked down, "Do you know why Poseidon didn't claim me, after he made that vow to Percy? Why Herculus wasn't claimed either? I mean, he was named after the greatest demigod that ever lived, Hercules, but that's obvious." I literally saw a tear go down her cheek.

"I don't know, but now, that you know you are, think of him better, he might just invite you to his _'under sea palace'!" _I joked the abbreviated words in a deep funny voice. April just giggled. Now that I thought about it she did look kind of _really _pretty…

But a Puff of sea foam green smoke appeared above her head in the shape of a trident, a letter now in her lap, same color, I could smell the ocean breezing past us. "April, look up…" I whispered. Even Lexi looked up to April's head.

April gasped, she took out a little, clear plastic jar and engulfed all the smoke in it. The jar grew larger, to the size of a large peanut butter jug and the smoke floated to the top, (after she closed the lid) and sand appeared in the bottom, the sea water over that, a little mini star fish appeared in the water. Then the tiniest dolphin started jumping in and out of the water. April squealed, she tipped it over and over again, but the inside marine life just stayed facing upright, letting the jar go round and round. "Oh my gosh, Nico, you got daddy to claim me!" Then April jumped over Lexi and hugged me, I jumped back in surprise, but she already had her arms locked around my neck.

I smiled and took her arms off of me, "Ok you welcome-" I laughed but Lexi got out of the position I was holding her in and socked April in the jaw.

"That hurt!" Lexi yelled.

"What? Did I step on you, Miss little 'I can control time'?" April fussed back in a sassy voice and shook her head. She then dived at Lexi, but then froze in mid air, looking confused and scared.

"Don't you dare." Lexi said slowly to April, put her hand down and April dropped on to Cerberus's furry back, groaning.

"Grab her!" I yelled at Herculus. We held her arms and legs down once again, but she didn't struggle. "Uh, April, why don't you open the letter Poseidon sent." I said quickly, to distract her.

She climbed over and grabbed her jar and letter the sat next to us. April slid her under the fold and pulled out a letter. She read aloud:

_**D**__ear __**A**__pril, _

_I am sincerely sorry that I left you unclaimed, but it was extremely dangerous to. This is because of the reason I left Percy unclaimed, I was still not aloud to sire you still. I misunderstood my personal 'seeing eye', she serves the gods with warnings. So as Zeus followed my bad example. I am proud and non regretful of my children, so do not think of this wrong. But you are in grave danger, all of you, Herculus and Nico. The reason is Lexi. Nico, you should not have brought her to Hades. She could turn to Kronos for Nico's choice. Nobody knows where his essence lies now, except for her. So I'm trusting all of you to do the right thing, and save us. I know this sounds weird coming from a God, but it's up to you three now. And April, the jar will forever be in you back pocket, shaped as a marble on a chain, attached to your pants, and it will turn into a sword, named _**oceabris**_, (Oh-shuh-briss) my gift to you. And you may visit my underwater palace once you have proven yourself on this new quest. And thank you Nico for making me realize, that I should care for April. You, April Aly Currentcrest, are my favorite daughter, I will visit. To reassure you, only Percy, and you are my only children (besides the Cyclops's), so I am aloud to claim favorites._

_I love you dearest,_

_Poseidon._

April looked up, and started to cry, I looked over to Herculus, and saw that he had been claimed, given a spear that turns into a sword, disused as a shark tooth necklace, and named **Thunderstorm**.

Cerberus stopped abruptly, I looked down, Lexi was gone, and I heard her scream from inside of Hades palace. But before we were able to run off to rescue her, I felt Herculus grab my foot, April my hand, and we were magically back in April's room at our foster home.


	4. Flames of all sorts

Read on…

**Chapter 4: Flames of all sorts.**

Now: April's POV.

"What was that all about?" Herculus exclaimed. I jumped, we've never seen him, or heard him this lively before.

"I don't know, but we need to get back." Nico said.

He must not have been thinking straight, because I didn't see how that could happen. "No, Nico, we can't." I said.

Nico's head spun around, bewildered. "We have to! Didn't you understand your father, we have to go back, and we can't let Lexi be tricked. What do you even have against her?" Nico was in my face by now, angry, sweaty, and really intense. His shoulders were stiff and I could see some type of black smoke coming from his finger tips, looking like he could hit me from anger.

"I have nothing against her, Nico. But I have this feeling that we can't stop her. She's been hiding things, I can sense it. You even heard her, you argued about it." I scowled back.

"That's not what I mean; you're always glaring at her, ignoring her, and acting as if she's the plague! So, tell me the truth." Nico demanded.

"Ok, well. I don't mean to glare at her. But I always knew she was hiding something, and she played with your mind, Nico. She did to all of ours. And I avoided her because her aurora gives off this cold chill -"

"What? You mean like me, how I'm the son of the dead?" He scoffed angrily, thinking I was saying something about him.

"No, you don't repel me. I have to admit that you're a little creepy at times, but not in a way to cause me a type of mental pain." I was raising my voice by now.

"What do you mean mental pain? Was she torturing you?" Now a strange look crossed Nico's face, like he was in between thinking I'm lying to him, or he's surprised, or just won't accept it, like he was concerned for many things at once.

"Who knows, maybe that's just the way demi-titans are? I mean we've never seen or heard of a human child of Kronos before. For all we've know, Kronos in his reign of power eat humans and demigods." Herculus said. I, again, had forgotten he was there.

"Ya, so Nico, why haven't you been repelled by her yet?" I asked him pointedly, and a little smug that Herculus agreed with me.

"I, I don't know. But what does that mean? Things of the wrong, like that, probably, don't affect me. Everything always hurts others, why not me? I feel like I'm alone sometimes." Nico said, with a solemn, thoughtful look on his face. His voice drifting off like he was just thinking to himself, he looked down and put his head in the palm of his hand.

Uhh, Nico always thinks about himself. I've been avoiding saying anything because it might not be true. But his words proved my annoyed suspicions. First, he tried to get rid of Percy, somehow. Then went all nuts, ignoring things of the outside world, going around looking for a ghost to teach him a revenge ceremony. The ceremony was to get his sister back for a trade for a soul who has cheated death. It took a while to get him back to normal. But staying in the underworld like a good little daddy's boy. Thinking he was the king of ghosts, even! Selfish was the only word that came to my mind all the time. I never believe sometimes that I like him, but it always ends up back the same. But now I swore to myself to not let that happen again. At any cost, knowing what Nico was capable of.

"Jeez, Nico. The world doesn't evolve all around you." I spat out.

"What? I don't think that eve-" He tried to say; I could hear the anger rising in it again.

"Yes you do." I said and left the room. Wait. "No,-" I spun back around, "this is my room, you leave." I marched back in, and shoved them out the door; Nico had to have his objecting limbs held down by Herculus.

Wow, all the wrong things said could lead to short conversations, and rapidly changing emotions, like anger.

I awoke in the morning to someone screaming. It sounded like someone was scraping their fingernails on a chalk board, or breaking shards of grass. It made me toss over in my bed and cover my ears with the pillow. When that didn't work, it seamed to have gotten louder, more irritating, and the grinding scratch just got deeper. I started to scream too, but my screeching was still drowned out. My hands started to claw at my head, my ears, and eyes. I pressed my hands harder and harder to my ears until it was no use.

My emotions were nowhere; I couldn't tell what anything was. I got it! I felt a tug in my stomach, but this was so much fainter than the tug that brought me, Nico, and Herculus into that fight. And suddenly I was encased in a ball of water. I felt completely dry, but the mysterious screaming seemed to have gotten somewhat, much quieter. The water had muted the scream, long enough for me to regain my bearings. I felt no ounce of tiredness, I was completely aware; too much adrenaline was running through me now. My senses sharper than they have ever been, I could tell where everything was, but, there again was the fact that it was all clouded out by my pool of water around my head.

I decided to go put out whatever brat was causing this monstrous shrilling. Walking out of the room, I could see that something was definitely wrong. The walls were peeling gradually. They were also smoking a little. The doors of my other house mates were all open, but Nico's, and some were snapped in half, wood and splinters spread across the hallway. The wall paint turned red and reduced to ashes. -

I couldn't look anymore, even through my ball of water. I tasted the smoke and ash on my tongue, how can that be when it's blocked out by water. As I turned around, I saw my room take flame. My dresser was just starting to spark up when I remembered my things. My picture of my mother was sitting next to the curtains, they quickly starting up, my jewelry box, clothes, etc. They were all in danger. Wait, this was a house fire, why was I getting so worked up?

I dove for the picture of my mother, and then slid over to my bed, grabbing and extra pair of clothes and jacket and shoes, then my secret shoe box, not even I dare think of its remnants. Another thing hit me, who was screaming?

I slipped my few salvaged belongings into my backpack, dumping out my school things, saving my locket. And wheeled out of the room, a beam falling down to where I just was from the ceiling. I felt the last bits of my thin sheet of water barrier disintegrate and smoke filling its place. My vision blurring, and the smoke and ashes thick, and filling my lungs to where I started to cough. I struggled to find my way down the hallway, fingers and palm starting to burn on the wall. I pulled them back and shrieked at the searing pain, hands now bleeding and in blisters. The shriek making my throat now parched, the smoke didn't help much.

I looked at the walls again; they were groaning and lightning up, the fire catching up with me. Now I know what the screaming came from, it was the whole building. It was wailing, giving warning screeches and screams and groans, daring to collapse in on me. I swore I could feel its frail enough metal frame swaying a bit. No, it was me. I started to crumple over, my lungs now filled with smoke. I couldn't breath; the coughing was too much to stomach. "Help me!" I managed to cry/croak out.

"April, I'm coming!" I heard Nico's voice call to me from down stairs.

I peered towards his voice, catching a glimpse of him. I was starting to black out, dark spots dancing across my vision. Nico's form ran up the stairs in front of me, and then he knelt next to me. "April, are you okay? We need to get you out of here!" He said in an exasperated voice. "Can you hear me? April! Wake up!" I felt him nudge my cheek.

"Uh, Nico?" was all that came out before the flames engulfed my mind.

Coughing. That's all I felt my unconscious self doing for hours. All the while hearing Nico's and others concerned voices, cooing me to wake up. Was I dead? I felt so hot and burning when I passed out. The whole building was on fire. A house fire.

"April?" I heard Lucas's voice softly ask me.

I started to stir, "Wha- what's going on?" I asked.

"Hold on. Nico!" He shouted. "Everyone, she's finally awake. Here, try to sit up." And Lucas helped me with that simple but hard task.

I heard foot steps out side of my room. This wasn't my room from the foster care, this was a hospital room. It smelled like too much disinfectant, and old people, also too much _bleach! _The room was small and simple, a square block, like what a todlar would be playing with on the first day of preschool. Tiles lined the ceiling and floor, they were not you standard white, but chartreuse with gold specks. The walls a comforting lime green, it made me think of vomit, the color combinations of this room. The bed was an even calmer lime green; the only white in the room was the cabinets and the railing of my hospital bed. Even my robe was chartreuse when I looked down at it!

The foot steps stopped, and then I heard some mumbling, it sounded like: 'Wait out here, I want to go first'. Then a figure stepped into this brightly lit room, it was Nico. "Lucas, would you please excuse us for a moment?" Nico asked.

Lucas nodded and then departed. Nico looked at me; a little nervously I might add. "How are you feeling?" I asked him, I couldn't think of anything else. _Hi_ would've seemed too rude to say to the boy who saved me from a fiery grave.

Nico gave out a soft but quick little laugh. "Coming from the person with all the burns and in a hospital bed." He came over and sat by the bed, where Lucas was almost.

"How bad am I?" I asked, now concerned. _Burns? _"Hand me a mirror."

"No, no, you're fine April." He smiled gently. "But how do you feel?" Nico asked.

"Um," I moved my limbs a little, and then yelped.

"What?" He jumped up, ready to help.

"No, I'm ok." I said hoarsely. "Just a little sore, I guess."

"No, I'm guessing a lot more than that. But, why were you still in there, you know, when the fire started?" Nico sat back down.

"What? I was asleep."

"The alarm was blaring for at least ten minutes. I though everyone was evacuated. So how could you've been asleep?" Nico said quizzically.

"Think, you had to come rescue me. And how did you know I was still in there?" I asked.

"Well," and Nico explained.

Lucas had been cooking bacon, when Herculus and Donagin ran down the stairs, being chased by Tami, and Joseph chasing her. They were spraying squirt guns at everyone. Mike joined in with his glass of orange juice and started spiting at them. May got irritated and started yelling for Lucas, they were all in the living room. And Jessica was running around looking for Nico, no one knows why. Nico was on the stairs hiding when Joseph tripped over him, and at the same time Lucas came in the room from down the first floor hallway that was directly on the left side of the stairs. We had been having some electrical problems and so an electrician was over fixing up the cable box that was open on the other wall in the first floor hallway. When Joseph tripped over Nico, he sailed over the railing and knocked over Lucas, while the whole time May was screaming for him to catch Joe. Lucas and Joe fell over and knocked down the electrician over, he hit something that opened up all the newly fixed wires, and Joseph's squirt gun's water spout flew straight into the wires. They sparked and so did the whole house, like spontaneous combustion. The alarms went off, and everyone evacuated.

"But right before Lucas finished the role call, I noticed that you were still in the house. Then you screamed 'help me' so I ran straight inside. I got there just in time, because after you were already in my arms and down the stairs, they collapsed. So… here you are." Nico finished the story. My eyes were wide.

"Thank you, Nico!" I started to cry then my arms flew around him. He hugged me back a bit weirdly, but then tried to calm me.

"Hey, it's okay. You're fine now, aren't you?" He said cooingly. I just moved my head up and down on his now moist t-shirt.

"Well, isn't that a surprising sight." Mike laughed at us when he walked into the room.

Nico sat me gently back down on my hospital bed. "What do you want, _Mikael?" _Nico said harshly to Mike.

"Oh nothing, just that your time's up. May wants to see her, and Jess, and Tami, and just about everyone else." Mike said just as harshly. Nico started to get angry. "Why, do you want more time with your _girlfriend_? Because you'll just have to talk that over with Lucas." Mikael started to laugh again, he looked over at me, then started laughing even harder, I could tell I was a tomato red.

"She's not my- you know what? Get out!" Nico grabbed a spare pillow and threw it at Mike, Mike just started laughing again and stumbled out of the room.

"Nico?" I said after a minute, he turned around, still huffing from being angry at Mike.

His face turned bright red. "Oh, um, sorry." Nico mumbled. He looked down, trying not to smile, it seemed contagious.

"What?" I laughed lightly, starting to smile.

"You're not embarrassed, are you?" Nico asked.

"What? About Mike? He's just a Butthead." I teased, Nico laughed softly, trying not to wind me up.

"No, I guessed not. But _girlfriend?_ That seems a little far for him." Now he looked like he might of said something wrong.

"Girlfriend, that's not too far, he was just playing with you. We're just friends." I teased him again, this time it worked, because he turned even redder.

"Ya."

"Hey Nico, can I visit with April now?" Tami asked, coming in the door way. "You've been in here too long."

Nico stood up and looked at me, "Ok. See you later, April." Then stalked out.

"Boy, what did you two talk about?" Tami asked in a girly gossiping voice.

"Just what happened with the fire and all, and Mike came in teasing Nico about me being his girlfriend." I laughed.

"Ha! Like that would ever happen-" Tami retorted but then came a loud _Boom!_

"What was that?" I asked. Tami just looked back to me with a horrified expression.

"April! Come on, Herculus, help me with her." All of the sudden, Nico thrust into the room with Herculus trailing him. "April, some monster broke into the building, I think it was snarling your name! We have to get you out of here." He and Herculus picked me up and placed me in Nico's arms like a baby would be in her mother's arms.

"Where do you plan on heading?" I asked.

"I don't know, but she might." He smiled and nodded ahead. I looked to where he motioned and saw her, it was Thalia Grace and a few of her fellow hunters. I remember the few years I was one of them. Thalia and I had been best friends for about two years while with the hunters. That had been during the period the other demigods called the titans curse, when we both joined, I was thirteen, she fifteen. I'm close to her age now, just a week to go. No longer a huntress (sigh)

"Thalia!" I called happily.

"Hey, Squint. Let's get you out of here." Thalia said, and we all ran for the emergency exit.


	5. Stheno and Birds of Brass

While in Nico's arms, we rushed out of a nearby fire escape onto the hospital roof. Thalia stopped and screamed in frustration. "Eh, what's wrong?" Herculus and one of the other huntresses asked at the same time, and then looked at each other awkwardly.

Thalia turned around, "The helicopter isn't here yet! How are we going to escape?-" My heart started pounding even harder for two reasons, one: I'm deathly afraid of heights, and two: we heard a loud screeching from what sounded like a bird and another from some feminine like bellowing, and felt it trying to rumble up the stairs.

I looked up at Nico, horrified, he was starting to cry. "Thalia, how do we get out? What is that thing coming for us?" He looked down at me, for a second I thought he was going to hit me, but with a look of determination on his face he told me what to do. "April, I can't carry you anymore, can you walk leaning up against me?"

"Ya-" I tried to answer.

"Herculus and Meredith, go try to jam the door, I need to think of a way off this place!" Thalia answered Nico's previous question. The two did as ordered. "Nico, take April and try to hide. You heard the creature's voice, it wants her. The rest of us will fight if it gets through." She looked at me then, "You're my best friend, I hope we see each other again after these birds and-"

I wanted to ask what birds but something big and hard smashed into the jammed door, but didn't break through yet. I shrieked and Nico again scooped me up and we hid down on the side of the building on another fire escape ladder. "Wait here; I'll have Herc come watch you." He started to turn around but I stopped him, because somehow I knew that the thing coming for me would be right above us and dive right for him at that exact second. We rolled to the edge of the railing and I almost fell out, because this giant bird came and crash landed on it, making it come unhooked part way from the building. We both started to fall to our death when Nico thought at the last second to shadow travel us onto the roof.

We landed on a bird that was about to take a death blow to Herculus' head. I dropped at the last second and landed on my side, which was covered in burns, and let out a scream of pain. This got the birds attention and I finally got a good look at it. It was about the size of a grown up Bengal Tiger, had a brass beak, and metallic feathers that looked platinum red. It sort of looked like a larger, but scarier version of a falcon.

For some reason, we just stared at each other; it relaxed from its killing position and just… stared at me. Nico was shocked by this weird moment and charged at the bird. A different kind of tug in my stomach told me that this bird was on my side, and to not let my other friend kill it. I summoned water on me to heal me and was up on my feet, all in enough time to come in between Nico and the transfixed bird. Nico had to stop with all his might to stop from hurting me with his momentum.

"April! What are you doing?" He yelled. I've never heard him yell at me like this before, but I stood up to him, whom no one does, like he's the boss or they're afraid of him.

"This bird isn't trying to kill me, I, I can control it, I can feel its emotions, Nico. You'll have to go through me to get through to it." I said calmly, almost on the verge of sobbing.

He looked at me, angry, like he was thinking something- but I said his thoughts aloud. "It might have some telepathy thing trying to trick you, April, and turn you on us. It only wants to kill you, and-" The last part I didn't want to say, one: because it was private, two: I now knew how Nico thought of me. I turned red and got angry. "Lexi did this! I know she did! Quit thinking about her, _she's _trying to trick _you!"_

_He, Herculus, Thalia, and the other two huntresses (one named Meredith) looked at me. Nico was in shock, "How did you read my mind? Watch out!" _

_We dove down just as a sword rained over where our heads just were. I looked back and saw a horrifying sight. A female like creature stood there, oozing something, with hands of brass, fangs, and had snake 'hair'. I some how knew her name was 'Stheno'. But Thalia said it out loud before I did. "That's Stheno, eldest of the Gorgons and older sister to Medusa." _

_This drew Stheno's attention to her and the two other huntresses. The ugly lady thingy, or Stheno, said in a slithery voice, "Exxxxtra company, I didn't expect thissss, or for my own Sssstymphalia birdssss to turn on me, for the one we came after. I guesssss we'll just get rid of them too!" the last part she shrieked. _

_Oh, how I wish Annabeth was here, she'd know what to do. I'm not Thalia's best, best friend, Annabeth is. I'm just Thalia's best friend from the huntresses._

_Three more Stymphalian birds landed next to Stheno. "I want thissss one," she pointed to me; "You can have the rest." she told the birds. _

_But I had a protector on my side, Falcon (that's what I named my Stymphalian bird). He flew in front of me, threatening Stheno by flexing his wings in a protective way, and shrilling up his metallic feathers threateningly. In my head I knew that Stheno couldn't beet this bird alone, it was stronger than her and was immune to her stares that turned you into stone. Falcon took the first step and the battle was on._

_Her birds went after my friends, two went after Nico and Herculus together, and the last one went after Thalia, Meredith, and Tatia (that was the last huntress). Falcon and Stheno collided. _

_Herculus and Nico took a running cover under an overhanging wing of the entrance to the top of the hospital where we are. Their two birds were smart and landed on the roof, slowly creeping towards my friends, portraying their feathers in a manner of prey verses predator. I couldn't stand the thought of my friends dying, and I have never been in any fight with a monster, nor do training and I know I could never win. But I dove in anyway. _

_I ran towards Nico and Herculus' two birds, whipped out my sword, Oceabris, and drove it straight into the metallic bird attacking Herc. It let out a shrill cry of pain and burst into dust at the contact of my celestial bronze sword. This blinded Nico's and it ran straight through another buildings window after thrashing around to try and see again, but the shattering glass killed it. _

_The two boys fell to the ground panting. Herculus had a harder time because he had to fight more than just Nico and me. I turned to see that Thalia and her friends have beaten their birds and were panting towards us also. That's when I finally noticed the tare in our atmosphere._

"_Wait," I said before they could say their first words. "I was a huntress, yet I kept thinking I had no training. Herculus, he just was exhausted, that's not right. And I'm supposed to be 13, and so are Nico, and Tatia. Why are we 15, then?" _

_Confusion crossed their faces just then. Time was being messed with, were we losing our lives in years, timed by just a few weeks? I thought of Lexi just then, I knew that somewhere in my gut that she was all behind this. Kronos' daughter, it should have been obvious, but I didn't want to be rude if I had ended up wrong, and it was self-evident that Nico likes her. _

"_April, what's going on?" Herculus asked._

"_I think… wait, Nico, shut up until I'm done." Nico looked down and mumbled something like he knew what I was about to say. "I think Lexi has been trying to throw us off course and dig up Kronos. But she also wants me gone because… somehow I can sense what things really are. Lexi isn't the right choice, Nico; she was tricking your mind to make you like her." I finished talking._

_He looked up and realization hit his face, "She was! But… why would she have been in hiding. What did you mean by Rachel is about to die?"_

"_Rachel is sick, some one is trying to take the oracle job from her, that person I think is Lexi, but some other force is interfering with it. But that's where my thoughts stop." I tell them._

_In an instant we were in a hospital hallway, but before we could get our bearings back, we were in my old foster home room, while it was in flames, then we were at the sight of where the twin towers had collapsed, and the buzzing stopped._

_I looked up and saw that only Herculus, Nico, and I were the only ones here, not Thalia, Meredith, or Tatia. The boys looked at me and were just as mystified as I was. Cars went bustling around us and I saw people talking on their phones, going up and down the cement jungle city sidewalks like all the rest of each other. _

"_Why are we here, how did that happen?" Herculus asked. I was wondering the same thing. But before Nico or I could open our mouths to speak, a giant chasm opened up in the middle of the street, again people were falling in like little turkey and monkeys having a poop sling fight._

"_Ohhhh, holy fish tacos…." Herculus mumbled._

"_Nico, did you do that?" I exclaimed. He shook his head. _

_Just then, a giant, ugly butt hand reached out of the hole and grabbed us, pulling us into its pits…_

_The next thing we see again in some type of light, is Lexi, with and evil, malicious grin on her face. She looked at us, and then gave an order to an indescribable creature that we missed to hear, and were swept away to another pit of extreme darkness._


End file.
